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How-To Geek

Repositories on Ubuntu are the locations that you can download software from. As a general rule, the default repositories don’t contain the right locations for most software packages that you’ll want to install. You will want to open up the /etc/apt/sources.list file, find and uncomment the following lines

Hi
I’m completely new to Linux and I have no idea about command lines and things like that. I can use Ubuntu at a basic level and I totally love it. However, I wish there was a A-Z guide on how to install software on Ubuntu.

For example, when you say “You will want to open up the /etc/apt/sources.list file, find and uncomment the following lines” I wonder where to go and open it and what is uncomment etc. Please help! I want to install Enlightenment on my Ubuntu!

Well You just said it. Basically you need a crash course in Linux Command Line

If your a mouse person Enlightenment will be great for you. Personally I am a keyboard guy and don’t like it.

/etc/apt/sources.list is the location and file that contains a list of the sources apt-get looks at to find a package to install. In this file a line beginning with # indicates a commented line. Without knowing command line I would say login to your graphical enviornment as root, and use gedit (Text Editor) to Modify this file. You want to open the file sources.list which can be found in the directory /etc/apt/

After you have modified this as needed, which I recommend only doing the above line exactly as stated. After doing this open a terminal and run “apt-get update” without the quotations. Then you can run “apt-get install enlightenment” without the quotations. This should install enlightenment for you if it is not already installed. you could login and then as root run “init 3″ to switch to command line, then run “startx –enlightenment” to see if it is installed. Most of the time it is not.

Geek, your site is awesome. I don’t know if you aim at the very high geeks or the beginner/moderate geeks as some of us are.UbuntuN00b is really a newbie and seems enthusiastic about Linux :-)
Maybe you could include a “beginner’s column” or something like that. A lot of us learnt Windows by get tips over the years from others more experienced , in Linux , it`s a lot harder to find someone to get you out of trouble :-)
I run Kurumin Linux which is a Brazlian distro based on Knoppix for about a year now and love it!
Cheers

I’m new to Ubuntu. After commenting out the lines, when I try to save it says I don’t have permission…you do not have the permissions necessary to save the file. Please check that you typed the location correctly and try again.

The file is read only. How do I overcome this obstacle and save the file, please?

I Installed Apache2 on Ubuntu. as per the documen provided at apache.org
Now i want to uninstall it, but i dont know exactly how to do it? And also Apache2 package is not reflecting on Synaptic Manager. Kindly suggest how to carry forward. Thanks!!!

In Intrepid Ibex (8.10) and later*, extra repositories can also be added and removed from the Main Menu:

System > Administration > Software Sources

This utility edits /etc/apt/sources.list through a convenient graphical interfaces. Simply check or uncheck the boxes for the repositories you want to include or exclude in software installations and updates.

*This feature may appear in earlier versions, but 8.10 is the only version I currently have installed on my machines.